It was the most irritating thing. Nerine could never stop her mouth from watering as she cut peaches and strawberries into a bowl and brought them to Captain Gammin every morning. He always watched the video feed from the galley as she did so. Eating half a strawberry once earned her a severe beating. All she had to do to remind herself of what a taste cost was run her tongue over the bare gum where two of her molars had been.
The little bowl of fruit was a high treat, especially on the Palamo. It was an old carrier. Stripped of whatever grandeur the vessel might have had, it was all bare deck plates and grating, mismatched lights and close quarters. Her bare feet still hadn't gotten used to the criss crossing metal of the catwalk that led directly to the Captain's quarters behind the bridge. She always took that route to avoid the ragtag slave crew. Most of them didn't jeer or tease anymore, they just stared or fell awkwardly silent at her passing. The Captain's rich breakfast irritated and frustrated them and there was nothing they could do about it.
Some of them had never tasted a real peach while others were saddened at the memory of real food. Many of them saw her as one of the lucky ones, the Captain's cabin girl. The position wasn't what most people thought it was. She cleaned his filthy clothes, his quarters, fixed his meals and did every other little thing he didn't care to do for himself. The only time she worried about him taking liberties with her was when she caught him staring. Nerine had become an expert at finding somewhere else to be when it happened and he didn't stop her as long as she was attending to his business.
The rear door to his quarters clanked and scraped as the metal slats rolled into the ceiling. She quietly crossed the room and placed the bowl on the table.
“Took you long enough,” Captain Gammin grumbled. His thinning brown hair had just been combed. His dark blue, coolant stained vacsuit was half sealed. He had just shaved, she could tell from the smell of soap.
His quarters were one of the only properly maintained places on the ship. The table in the living room was antique redwood, two legs were secured to the wall with safety straps so it would be safe if the ship was under attack. The mismatched chair was gilded polished steel. His bedroom was furnished with the best auto adjusting mattress, a tall dresser. To her relief, she didn't have to sleep there. No, Nerine had a cot she set up at night in the Captain's living and dining space. Every morning she'd have to be awake before him and have her bed put away in one of his two closets.
He dug in greedily, stabbing a peach slice with his fork and stuffing it into his mouth.
Nerine stood a few steps away from the table, her hands behind her back, looking out the wide porthole. There was a field of blue, white and black speckled asteroids out there, a ring that she couldn't see the end of. The distant star bathed the field of stone and ice in white light, causing some of them to glint and glimmer. It was bright, but it was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen.
“What're you looking at girl?”
Nerine realized with a start that Captain Gammin's sidearm, a broad barrelled pulse pistol, was on the table under the window. He thinks I was eying his gun! She thought in alarm. “I was looking outside! At the asteroids.”
Gammin's hand went to the gold inlaid amulet hanging around his neck and pressed a button behind the facade.
Nerine screamed as her nerve endings flared with the unique sensation of thousands of individual, pulsing shocks. Her vision went white, the sensation of her knees striking the deck was a distant one. When the pain cleared her vision returned, she was on all fours, catching her breath. Every time it seemed it got worse. That time she couldn't hear herself screaming, but from the rasp in her throat she could tell she had.
Captain Gammin had already returned his attention to his breakfast. He impaled several strawberry slices with his fork before muttering; “Go tell Paudi I'll be out in a minute.”
Her limbs felt stiff. Nerine forced herself to her feet and tried to straighten her unruly brown ringlets as she stepped towards the door. It swept aside with a groan, the motor that moved the portal was starting to wear out again. She hoped David would come and repair it, his mellow smile and easy going nature always made her feel better.
“Before I'm done! Get going!” Captain Gammin called after her.
She walked through the short hallway leading to the bridge and stepped onto the grated catwalk that wound around the upper level of the bridge. The lower level had a proper deck with smooth plating but she avoided it as much as possible. The Palamo’s First Officer, Eyig Paudi, an angosian with little sympathy for humans and an itchy finger for his slave obedience unit, or SOBU as the slave crew called it. He peered up at her from below, the blue and green colours of his skin swimming slowly across his face.
Whenever he got excited the blue would darken and expand over his angular mouth. It's down pointed corners made people of his species look harsh, their low lidded eyes made them look suspicious of everything. “He's finished toying with you?” Eyig wheezed. He was laughing at her, it took her a while to understand what that sounded like, but the wheeze over top his low voice gave it away. At least it wasn't Doctor Thurge.
“He says he'll be out in a minute,” Nerine replied as pleasantly as possible. She'd managed to mute her ire but it sounded more flat than cordial.
“Good. We're almost ready.”
Nerine continued along the catwalk, passing behind navigation, fleet command and communications stations all busy with whatever they'd be doing that day. She tried not to flinch as the criss cross metal walkway slipped between her toes.
When she arrived beside Kadri, one of the communications officers, she swung a stool out from under the console. “Sit,” Kadri said as she filtered through a myriad of natural and unnatural signals.
Nerine wasn't about to refuse. The older woman was like a surrogate older sister. “Hi Kadri. What's goin' on today?”
“We're raiding Ossimi Ring. The scouts say Eden Fleet took out all their defences and Regent Galactic hasn't come in to clean up the mess. Have you eaten?”
“I ate yesterday.”
Kadri pulled a nutrient bar from a pocket sewn inside the chest of her jumpsuit and handed it to Nerine. “Here, eat.”
She listened. It had become easy to pretend she wasn't hungry. There were few people Nerine felt comfortable asking for anything from, but Kadri always had extra food. Where she got it was something she simply didn't want to know. “What're you looking for?” she asked around a mouthful of the chewy, caramel flavoured bar.
“I'm looking at a wormhole exit point. I know it's not a Regent Galactic or Eden ship but I can't seem to get a perfect fix on the transponder. They're coming in pretty slow though, shouldn't be here for another day or so.”
“Is that the profile?” Nerine asked, pointing at the blurry shape on the top layer of her screen.
“It is, nothing much to look at. More like a shifty blob,” she turned the opacity of the wormhole readings screen down so they could barely see it. Anyone else looking on would see them looking at signal waves that were being analysed.
“Is that the right transponder info?”
Kadri looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was listening in and looked at the decoded transponder information ponderously. “Free Ship Triton under Captain Valance out of Pandem orbital space,” she muttered to herself.
“He's a freedom fighter. There were news casts all the time on Enreega before the Eden Fleet hit it and my starliner was taken.”
“Let's send him a message,” Kadri's smile was a thin, stretched grin. “I think over half the ship knows who he is.”
“What are you telling him?”
“Shh,” Kadri worked at the controls as quickly as she could, transmitting a recent audio feed and a few written messages Nerine wasn't quick enough to read. “Okay, it's sent, the logs are deleted and I'm entering the conclusion about the wormhole entry point in as a minor energy fluctuation.”
“If they catch you-”
“They'll click that fancy button and poison me to death, then no more caramel bars for you,” Kadri whispered. “So keep your little gob shut and we'll see what Valance can do for us.”
“From your mouth to the heavens,” Nerine whispered hopefully before popping the last bite of the nutrient bar into her mouth.